Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

Campus

Northwestern Law is located on Northwestern University's downtown campus in Chicago's Streeterville/Gold Coast neighborhood. The law school is on Lake Shore Drive and Chicago Avenue, adjacent to Lake Shore Park and Lake Michigan. It is a few blocks from the John Hancock Center, Magnificent Mile, Water Tower, Oak Street Beach, and Navy Pier.

Admissions

Admission to Northwestern Law is extremely competitive. For the class entering in the fall of 2016, 821 out of 4,070 applicants (20%) were offered admission, with 213 matriculating. The 25th and 75th LSAT percentiles for the 2016 entering class were 163 and 170, respectively, with a median of 168. The 25th and 75th undergraduate GPA percentiles were 3.43 and 3.89, respectively, with a median of 3.81.

The law school's practical philosophy is manifested in a strong preference for applicants with at least two years of work experience. Approximately 90% of the school's students enter with at least one year of full-time work experience; 70% possess more than two years of experience. In this respect, Northwestern Law is similar to many business schools.

Employment

According to U.S. News & World Report's 2017 Edition, 79% of the law school's 2016 graduates obtained prospective, full-time employment prior to graduation, with a median starting salary of $160,000. According to Northwestern's official 2016 ABA-required disclosures, 91% of the Class of 2015 obtained full-time, long-term employment nine months after graduation. Northwestern's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 8.8%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2013 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, living expenses, books, and other miscellaneous expenses) at Northwestern Law for the 2015-2016 academic year is $79,904. The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $292,586.

Journals

The law school sponsors six student-run scholarly legal journals. Student staff members are selected based on a writing competition, editing competition, and first-year grades, or a publishable note or comment on a legal topic.

Northwestern University Law Review

The Northwestern University Law Review was first published in 1906 when it was called the "Illinois Law Review." Prior editors include: Roscoe Pound, long-time dean of Harvard Law School; Judge Robert A. Sprecher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens; Dean James A. Rahl; Illinois Governor Daniel Walker; and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Newton N. Minow; US Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Presidential Candidate Adlai Stevenson.

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

The Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property addresses subjects relating to law at the intersection of technology and intellectual property, including law and biotechnology, copyrights, the Internet, media, patents, telecommunications, and trademarks.

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

The School states that its Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology "is one of the most widely read and widely cited publications in the world". It is the second most widely subscribed journal published by any law school in the country. It is one of the most widely circulated law journals in the country. The journal was founded in 1910 by Dean John Henry Wigmore.

Journal of Law and Social Policy

The Journal of Law and Social Policy is an interdisciplinary journal that explores the impact of the law on different aspects of society. Topics covered include race, gender, sexual orientation, housing, immigration, health care, juvenile justice, voting rights, family law, civil rights, poverty, the environment, and privacy rights.

Journal of International Law and Business

The Journal of International Law and Business has a substantive focus on private international law, as opposed to public international law or human rights. It seeks scholarship analyzing transnational and international legal problems and their effect on private entities. The Journal's stated goal is to promote an understanding of the future course of international legal developments as they relate to private entities.

Journal of Human Rights

The Journal of Human Rights is an interdisciplinary journal dedicated to providing a dynamic forum for the discussion of human rights issues and law. The Journal seeks contributions from professionals, scholars, and experienced field workers of every background, including but not limited to law, business, political science, public policy, economics, sociology, religion, and international relations. In addition to publication, the Journal seeks to promote the discussion of human rights law by organizing semi-annual Symposia and a Speaker Series. The Journal of Human Rights was founded in 2003 as the Journal of International Human Rights, but adopted its present name in 2016 to better reflect its focus.

Pritzker Legal Research Center

The Pritzker Legal Research Center fulfills the research and information needs of the faculty and students of Northwestern Law. The Center is named after the Pritzker family, the Chicago family that is known for its international philanthropy. Jay A. Pritzker (1922-1999) graduated from Northwestern University in 1941 and Northwestern University School of Law in 1947.

Bluhm Legal Clinic

Clinical education at Northwestern began in 1910 when Dean John Henry Wigmore developed a program with the Chicago Legal Aid Society that evolved into the Bluhm Legal Clinic. The clinic opened its doors in 1969 with two staff attorneys and 12 students. Today, more than 20 clinical professors mentor over 120 students who take clinical courses each year. Each center within the Clinic operates as a quasi-law firm, wherein students assist clients with practical legal matters under the tutelage of full-time faculty from the School.

Center on Wrongful Convictions

The Center on Wrongful Convictions is dedicated to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions and other serious miscarriages of justice.

The Center includes faculty, staff, cooperating outside attorneys, and Bluhm Legal Clinic students investigate possible wrongful convictions and represent imprisoned clients with claims of actual innocence. The Center also focuses on identifying systemic problems in the criminal justice system and, together with the community services component, on developing initiatives designed to raise public awareness of the prevalence, causes, and social costs of wrongful convictions and promote reform of the criminal justice system. In addition, the community services component helps exonerated former prisoners cope with the difficult process of reintegration into free society.

The Supreme Court Clinic

Northwestern offers a Supreme Court Clinic, allowing second- and third-year students the opportunity to work on cases pending before the Supreme Court of the United States. The clinic is run by Carter Phillips, from Sidley Austin's Washington, D.C. office.

Federal Appellate Clinic

The Federal Appellate Clinic allows third-year students to obtain provisional law licenses and argue cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Students in this clinic spend an entire year representing a criminal appellant, from merits briefing to oral argument. The Federal Appellate Clinic is run by Northwestern Clinical Professor and former Seventh Circuit law clerk Sarah Schrup.

Children and Family Justice Center

The Children and Family Justice Center, directed by Julie Biehl as of 2009, was founded in 1992. Attorneys, a social worker, and affiliated professionals help second- and third-year law students meet with clients, research legal issues, and learn pretrial investigation, interviewing, and counseling skills and litigate cases. The Center represents young people on matters of delinquency and crime, family violence, school discipline, health and disability, and immigration and asylum.

MacArthur Justice Center

The MacArthur Justice Center, led by Profs. Locke E. Bowman and Joseph Margulies, does work on police misconduct, wrongful detention compensation, post-9/11 work, and other public interest and civil rights issues. Of particular note is the Guantanamo Bay detainee representation led by Joseph Margulies, author of Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power and lead counsel in Rasul v. Bush.

Entrepreneurship Law Center

The Law School's Entrepreneurship Law Center (ELC), founded as the Small Business Opportunity Center (SBOC), is a transactional clinic that was founded in 1998. Clients include technology executives, consultants, inventors, manufacturers and sellers of consumer products, musical groups, and persons interested in establishing nonprofit organizations.

The Center is also heavily involved in teaching in the field of entrepreneurship law, and hosts symposia and conferences to facilitate that endeavor.

Center for International Human Rights

The Center for International Human Rights works to advance human rights while enabling students to test and refine their academic learning in real cases. Stressing a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach, the center provides policy perspectives to the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the U.S. Department of State, foreign governments, and nongovernmental organizations.

Faculty, staff, and students, as well as volunteer lawyers, visiting fellows, and interns carry out research, public and professional education, technical assistance, and advocacy of pressing international issues.

The center also offers students an opportunity to earn an LLM in Human Rights. The degree program is designed for students from transitional democracies and for those with career interests in international human rights law.

Over the years faculty and staff working in the center have addressed, among other matters, the role of the International Criminal Court, international terrorism, U.S. death penalty laws, truth commissions, economic rights, NATO's humanitarian intervention, and political asylum cases. Students have investigated cases and had summer internships in Guatemala, Indonesia, and at the U.N. Human Rights Centre in Geneva.

Investor Protection Center

Northwestern Law's Investor Protection Center provides assistance to investors with limited income or small dollar claims who are unable to obtain legal representation. Law students, under the supervision of faculty attorneys, represent customers in handling their disputes with broker-dealers.

During the last few years, the (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority)(FINRA) and other organizations have taken steps to make more information and services available to investors. Northwestern Law's Investor Protection Center operates with the aid of grants from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation and other organizations to focus on priority areas. In particular, the center is focused on helping to meet the needs of women, novice investors, and the elderly, in connection with securities arbitration.

Fred Bartlit Center for Trial Advocacy

Named in honor of an innovative leader in litigation and business strategies, the Fred Bartlit Center for Trial Advocacy was established in 1999 to conduct research and teach innovative and technologically advanced trial strategy. The Bartlit Center focuses on changes in trial craft brought on by new technologies and compensation approaches.

The Bartlit Center sponsors and conducts academic research on the litigation process; support teaching skills in the JD program; and holds national conferences to explore and teach innovative trial and trial management strategies. The Bartlit Center works to complement the Law School's program in simulation-based teaching of trial skills and builds on the research produced by Northwestern Law faculty.

Notable faculty

The 2016 student/faculty ratio was 6.5 to 1.

Notable Northwestern Law faculty, past and present, include:

Popular media

Alumni

Selected prominent Northwestern Law alumni include:

Government / politics

Academia

For-profit / Non-profit organizations

Firsts